If losing jobs and seeing their stock portfolios decline isn't enough, Americans also have been stripped of one of their most important resources -- optimism. Nearly three-quarters of American adults believe future generations will face a harder time economically than current and past generations, according to a survey of 943 people by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Americans overwhelmingly support President Obama's order that federal agencies must show a "presumption in favor of disclosure" when asked to open government records to the public, an order issued during his first full day in office. But a survey of 946 adult residents of the United States also found that 61 percent believe the federal government "only sometimes, rarely or never" obeys the Freedom of Information Act that requires such disclosure.

Most Americans say it is very likely or somewhat likely that humans are not alone in the universe and that intelligent life exists on other planets. One in every 12 Americans has seen a mysterious object in the sky that might have been a visitor from another world, while nearly one in every five personally knows someone who has seen an unidentified flying object.